troyer."

Not a word concerning her action to Ernest. Thought of it stung too
much for mention, so there was nothing to do but comfort her till she
fell asleep and await from Ernest the next turn of events bearing on
the situation.

The next turn of events in the Clay household bore down upon us next
morning after breakfast when grandma came home, having left the
first-born of Rooney-Molyneux comfortably asleep in the swaddling
clothes which had contained Dawn at the date when she had been "a
little winjin' thing," with whom everything had disagreed, and which
garments were lent to the new-born babe until grandma could provide
him with others. The hale old dame was not too fatigued to be in a
state of lively ire, and opened fire upon her circle with--

"I met old Hollis on the way home, an' do you believe, he says to me,
'Well, Mrs Clay, so I believe you've took to rabbit ketchin' in your
old days.' It was like his cheek, the same as w'en he said the monkeys
would be havin' a vote next. _Rabbit ketchin'_ indeed! No wonder women
has got sense at last to make the birth-rate decline, when you see
cases like that, and even the people that go to help them out of the
fix--an' that out of kindness, not for no reward nor pleasure--is
demeaned to their face an' called _rabbit ketchers_, if you please! I
reckon all women ought to be compelled to be _rabbit ketchers_ for a
time, an' it would be such a eye-opener to them that if there wasn't
some alterations made in the tone of the whole business they would all
strike so there'd be no need of _rabbit ketchin'_, as some call it, to
make things more disagreeabler; and that's what has been goin' on
lately in a underhand way, but _some people_," concluded the
intelligent old lady with her customary choler, coming to a full stop
ere recapitulating the misdoings of these unmentionable members of
society.

"Rabbit ketching," as midwifery is contemptuously termed in the
vernacular, does require a status, and those who have need of it merit
some consideration. Civilisation, stretching up to recognise that
every child is a portion of State wealth, may presently make some
movement to recognise maternity as a business or office needing time
and strength, not as a mere passing detail thrown in among mountains
of other slavery.

During the whole forenoon I busied myself with the construction of
garments for the new arrival in this vale of woe, and at the same time
was on the alert for the